New York Heritage launched as a portal to NYS digital collections

Congratulations to the New York 3Rs for their new initiative, New York Heritage. John Hammond, Executive Director of the Northern New York Library Network, said in email that they hope to see many, many collections added to this effort. With 10,000 cultural heritage organizations in New York State, there could indeed be a lot of growth!

The site uses many web pages that are not part of CONTENTdm to provide additional information. That really helps the site be more robust. The layout is clean and with 160 digital collections already, there is a ton of content!

Here's the press release about this new site:

The New York 3Rs Association has launched a new digital heritage web site, www.newyorkheritage.org. The site connects more than 160 digital collections from around the state, contributed by libraries, archives, museums and other cultural institutions, and builds on existing digital repository services administered by each of the nine reference and research library resources councils.

NewYorkHeritage.org uses OCLC's CONTENTdm Multisite Server to bring these collections together, allowing the public to search across all items simultaneously. This project provides free, online access to images of cultural and historical significance in New York State.

A variety of materials can be found among the New York Heritage Digital Collections, including photographs, postcards, correspondence, manuscripts, oral histories, yearbooks and newspapers. Many kinds of institutions from New York State have partnered to make this project possible, including public, academic and school libraries, museums, archives and historical societies. The power of collaboration is what makes this new service possible.

Participants to New York Heritage Digital Collections are committed to enhancing the site by adding both content and contributing institutions on a regular basis. The goal of the project is to eventually connect one thousand collections and one million items from throughout New York State. All institutions interested in participating in the project are encouraged to contact the 3Rs organization that serves their region.

The New York 3Rs Association is a partnership among New York's nine reference and research resource systems. The New York 3Rs was incorporated in 2003 to further the ability of those systems to provide statewide services. The members of the New York 3Rs Association are: the Capital District Library Council, Central New York Library Resources Council, Long Island Library Resources Council, Metropolitan New York Library Council, Northern New York Library Network, Rochester Regional Library Council, Southeastern New York Library Resources Council, South Central Regional Library Council, and Western New York Library Resources Council.

---

Technorati tag: Digitization, New York State, NYS